Dear learners,
Summary
Fragmentary thoughts upon events and study of St Francis of Assisi. About
one and a half pages.
I am aware that I have used the word "begging" and I am also aware that
such a word contains great power. "Begging" and "beggars" may and may not
frequent this virtual place. It may be that one day a "beggar" comes upon
this door. Shall it be open or shall it be closed?
The day either/or wrote to both/and ;-) then...¦.
Two that is One < "On the evening of the christening (of Francis) a
pilgrim knocked at the door, begging food. After he had eaten he asked if
he might hold the boy in his arms and, to the nurses amazement, Pica (his
father) agreed. Looking at the baby he said, 'Today two children have been
baptized in this city; one will be among the best of men the other among
the worst.'" This prediction came true for Francis.
-Speed with the light-foot to run,
And with the trees to newer birth.
Julian Grenfell
-Yesterday as we were walking around the edge of the fields circumscribed
by ditches, streams and growing grasses in the second living-field there
was the sense of being watched from a distance. It was a solitary deer,
female and full grown but slim as she faced us with face full of eyes and
ears. We pretended not to notice her since it is quite possible she would
have been with her foal. We walked on and round the perimeter until at
last we reached the wooden bridge over the stream that took us out of the
field, still she was watching us as mere specs on her horizon. Only when
we had departed the field did she remove herself to another safety, not
that I saw it, I just turned and she was gone.
Master Boehme, where does the soul go when the body dies? 'There is no
need for it to go anywhere.'
St Francis of Assisi, speaking with his friend Leo offered him profound
insight into the nature of joy in a world full of suffering.
" If I were told that every scholar in Paris, all the bishops and archbishops
beyond the Alps, and the kings of France and England had joined the order,
that should not bring me joy. Nor should it if I discovered that my brothers
had converted every infidel, while I was able to heal the sick and perform
miracles.
But if I walked back from Perugia, through mud on a dark night in winter, and
my legs bled from the icicles on the hem of my tunic; and if I had to knock
twice at the door of the Porziuncula when I got back and was twice turned
away; and if a third time I knocked I was told to go off and find shelter in
the Crugiger's leper house - I tell you that if I could stand this and not be
upset, that would be perfect joy."
Scripta Leonis, P 279 and 2 Cel, 215
" The dancing dolphins with their tails divide
The glittering waves and cut the precious tide"
In the time of Francis, dolphins were symbols of social love.
"I care not that the people know me; I care that I know the people."
The Confucian Analects
People talk of fears of 'letting go', of knowledge held and withheld and
we might think a saint certain sure of his Master's words but no. "No one
showed me what to do." Francis looking how best to guide his two new
brothers, Bernard and Peter took them all three: -) to the church of St.
Nicholas and each being unsure of which pages in the gospels would be
appropriate to the needs and wants they knelt to pray. Upon which Francis
opened the Gospels three times according to chance at first Mathew 19:21,
then Luke 9:3, and Mathew 16.24. Therein was their vocation set. Two
years after having stood naked and alone, friendless before the bishop.
The creative collapse par excellence led him to acquire twelve beggars. So
that in 1209 he had courage to knock on the door of the pope himself with
an 'outrageous request'; that he should give them his blessing and the
mission to restore the church of which he was the God-given head.
Is that a synchronicity sought?
Is this a light you seek?
"Death sometimes approaches like a shadow or a cloud, even the onset of
night, and it must have seemed so to the brothers who prayed around
Francis in the fading light. But he was moving into another world, growing
closer to his God whose emblem was the sun. Blind, he was looking up into
the cloudless blue of a perfect summer morning which suddenly blazed with
a dazzling light as he died. For the others it was just after sunset on
3rd October."
And we do not know where he is now.
Best,
Andrew Campbell
Quotations from ISBN 1-85619-489-2 Francis of Assisi, Adrian House, Chato &
Windus.
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